British Island Games teams consider jumbo jet for Bermuda

The British-based Island Games islands are set to charter a jumbo jet to try and save travel costs for next year's event in Bermuda.

The cost for each athlete from the nine British islands to get to the games is thought to be in the region of £2,000.

"We've now got beneficial numbers when it comes to chartering a plane," said Guernsey Island Games boss Dave Inglis.

"We're looking at a 747 and 600 people on that aircraft - the more that do fly out there more the cost comes down."

Inglis told BBC Guernsey: "There's a real focus on a charter arrangement whereby the UK teams will fly out of Gatwick and the Scandinavian teams will fly out of Stockholm.

"There's been a real coming together within the association by all the islands to come up with a good remedy to keep the costs down."

A number of sports have been affected by the high travel costs, with Guernsey and Jersey not sending football teams.

Guernsey will have the second-largest team at the games after the hosts, with 165 athletes confirming that they will make the trip for the first Island games to ever be held outside Europe.

"We feel we're in a good starting position to tie up the accommodation and would be looking to have everyone together as a team," Inglis said of his plans for 2013.

"We've looked at all the accommodation on offer and we feel the accommodation that we are going to be able to propose is the right type of accommodation for them.

"We've got an indication of 165 athletes and we feel we'll be the second-largest team there, we're delighted by those numbers."